Post on 14-Jul-2020
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Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts,
Praxis Strand, Vol.4 No.1, Spring/Summer 2017, pp. 56-78
Ubiquity: http://ed-ubiquity.gsu.edu/wordpress/
ISSN: 2379-3007
The Culturally Responsive Classroom Supports Students’ Literacy Skills and Cultural
Understanding
© Suhua Huang
Midwestern State University
© Karissa Rohmer
Midway Elementary School
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Suhua Huang, 4100 Week
Park Ln. #295, Wichita Falls, TX 76308.
Contact: suhua.huang@mwsu.edu
Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, Praxis Strand, Vol.4 No.1,
Spring/Summer 2017
Huang & Rohmer CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM
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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to encourage creation of a culturally responsive classroom by
providing multicultural children’s books and teaching strategies to meet diverse learners’ needs.
To discuss how to form a culturally responsive classroom and how to be culturally responsive
teachers, eight multicultural picture books are selected and teaching demonstrations are also
included. Three major teaching approaches are presented in this article: structure-analysis
conversation, character study journals, and literature discussion and presentation.
Keywords: Multicultural, literacy, literature
Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, Praxis Strand, Vol.4 No.1,
Spring/Summer 2017
Huang & Rohmer CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM
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The Culturally Responsive Classroom Supports Students’ Literacy Skills and Cultural
Understanding
Introduction
We encounter many races, cultures, and languages in our classrooms (Huang &
Kowalick, 2014; Reutzel & Cooter, 2012; Sparza & Ahmad, 2006). As demographics change,
the number of minority children in the United States has grown rapidly (Matthew & Jang, 2007);
one in three Americans is now a member of a minority group (Cohn & Bahrampour, 2006). The
U.S. Department of Education (2013) further reports that nearly 10% of the U.S. student
population now comes from non-English speaking homes. The need for cross-cultural
understanding has greatly increased in the United States (Montgomery, 2000; Norton, 2009).
The K-12 English language arts and literacy curriculum has made significant changes due
to Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which stress even more that teachers need to
capitalize on the growing racial and ethnic diversity in their classroom (National Governors
Association, 2010). With the needs of the diverse student population and the CCSS requirements,
teachers not only face a tremendous change in today’s classroom, they are also expected to
become culturally responsive teachers to work with diverse races, ethnicities, and cultures in the
classroom (Jones-Goods, 2015).
Culturally responsive pedagogy covers three dimensions: institutional, personal, and
instructional. To build a culturally responsive class, the instructional dimension is most
important, as it directly relates to student achievement and includes the materials, strategies and
activities that teachers can implement on a daily basis (Gay, 2010). It is imperative for teachers
to select reading materials and to design effective strategies, teaching students to read and write
by using reading materials in which they see their own culture (Jones-Goods, 2015).
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To establish a culturally responsive classroom, we selected eight multicultural picture
books and implemented effective reading and writing strategies to help students understand the
texts and the culture presented in the texts. We selected these multicultural picture books based
on various languages and multicultural educators: Harada (1995), Harris (1991), and Pang,
Colvin, Tran, & Barba (1992). They recommend that high-quality multicultural literature
contain: (a) no stereotypes of particular cultural groups; (b) authentic illustrations; (c) pluralistic
themes to foster belief in cultural diversity in the USA; (d) high literary quality, including strong
plots and well-developed characterization; (e) reflections of the cultural values of the characters;
and (f) a variety of settings that build an accurate conception of the culturally diverse nature.
Additionally, books need to be published after 2009, as we have noticed new titles for
multicultural books are more available, presenting trends in the roles played by minority groups
in America.
The eight selected books for this article are: The Longest Night: A Passover Story by
Laurel Snyder (2013); The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman; Pemba Sherpa by Olga Cossi
(2009); Two Stories of Bravery Jeanette Winter (2014); Mirror by Jeannie Baker (2012); Fish for
Jimmy: Inspired by One Family’s Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp by
Katie Yamasaki (2013); Pancho Rabbit and Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale by Duncan Tonatiuh
(2013); and Red Kite, Blue Kite by Ji-Lin Jiang (2013). The detailed information about each text
is listed in Table 1.
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Table 1
Detailed Information of Each Text
Text Summary
The Longest Night: A Passover Story was written by Laurel Snyder. This book is
based on traditional Jewish culture. It tells the story of Passover and explains what
the children were doing during the time the Jews were enslaved in Egypt 3,500 years
ago.
In the heartfelt book The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman, the great-grandfather
tells his life story through mementos he has collected over the years, recounting how
he came from Italy to America. Each matchbox has its own story to share with new
generations.
Pemba Sherpa by Olga Cossi, is about Pemba and his young sister, Yang Ki, both
eager for roles as guides and porters to the high country of the Himalayas, but girls
are not accepted or encouraged to be porters or guides in Nepal.
Red Kite, Blue Kite by Ji-li Jiang describes Tai Shan’s experiences during the
Cultural Revolution period in China. Baba, the father, has devised a kite-
flying code for Tai Shan so they can send messages through their red and blue
kites when his father is in the labor camp.
Two Stories of Bravery was written by Jeanette Winter. The book is about two
children’s stories in one country: Pakistan. The two children are Malala Yousafzi and
Iqbal Mashih. Both have encouraged others to speak out and to reject unspeakable
violence.
Mirror by Jeannie Baker. It is a wordless picture book. There are two cultures and
two stories in this book. One family lives in a city in Australia and one lives in
Morocco, North Africa.
Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale by Duncan Tonatiuh is about
Pancho, a young rabbit, who sets out for the North to find his father, who did not
return home on the expected day. The author uses folkloric patterns to describe
“coyote” in Spanish, which means someone who smuggles people across the border
between Mexico and the United States
Fish for Jimmy: Inspired by One Family’s Experience in a Japanese American
Internment Camp by Katie Yamasaki is about Taro’s father, who is taken away for
questioning by the FBI. Taro, his mother, and his younger brother Jimmy are sent to
the internment camp.
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To start introducing these above-mentioned books, we created a multicultural week
exhibition in the hallway (See Figure 1). We implemented a three-week multicultural teaching
unit for third grade students to connect reading and writing across multiple content areas. Three
major teaching approaches are presented in this article: structure-analysis conversation, a
character-study journal, literature discussions, and presentations.
Figure 1. Multicultural Week exhibit. This poster represents the need all students have for a
positive and meaningful education experience in our classrooms regardless of background.
Diversity is the one true thing we have in common in the United States.
Structure-Analysis Conversation for Reading and Writing Activities
Before teaching these books, we started by introducing the background of each text, such
as the original country, language spoken, geographic location, customs, holidays, some food
items, and so on, to build up students’ prior knowledge about these books. Some video clips on
YouTube related to the countries in the texts were shown in order to enhance students’ interest in
these books. For example, one clip was Malala Yousafzai’s (Kumagai, 2015) speech at the UN,
“One teacher and one pen can change the whole world.”
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We created some discussion questions to probe students’ curiosity about the content of
the texts, such as “What do you think of the story?”, “What is your favorite part of the story?”,
“What are the main ideas of each text?”, and “Do you feel satisfied with the story’s end?” To
develop deeper understanding of the texts, “book talk” time was formed, and we asked students
to get into groups of five and read these texts together. We noticed that working in a small group
can help students to develop expansion of thought, a spirit of inquiry, and an exploration of the
texts. This activity can extend to teaching vocabulary. We selected key words from each text to
teach the meanings and word usages for terms such as “landslide,” “internment camp,” and
“Passover” by using graphic organizers. We also created some riddles for students to play with
words and to foster reading comprehension. For example, a riddle might ask questions such as “I
am very short and tiny. I live in a little house. I have the power to make things fizzling and
sparkling. Who am I?”
“Show and tell” was another fun activity that we created for learning vocabulary. We
asked students to select a word from the text and explain the meaning of the word, while other
students guessed what the word was. For example, students selected immigrant from the books
The Matchbox Diary (Fleischman, 2013) and Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale
(Tonatiuh, 2013). After the students were familiar with some of the words (have seen them,
heard them in context, and discussed them), we divided the class into teams, with no more than
five on a team. Then one vocabulary word was picked and the correct number of spaces for
letters was placed on the board (just like in hangman). Each team had one spokesman at a time
and the spokesman changed every round. The teammates discussed their letter guess (they had to
pick letters until at least one letter blank was filled in), and the spokesman either agreed with the
team or made his own guess. Each incorrect guess resulted in more of the person being drawn
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(like hangman). Circle map was another vocabulary strategy for this unit. We placed circle maps
on each table (five students per table), with four tables with four categories: “synonym,”
“antonym,” “root,” and “affix.” We had the students stand up and push their chairs in. We played
some music while they were traveling around the room. A leader dictated how they would travel
and all students needed to move in the same direction as the leader. When the music stopped,
they had to sit at a table and begin listing whatever their circle map said to list. For the “root,”
they needed to list other words that contained the same root. For the “affix,” they needed to
create other words with the same root as the original vocabulary word by exchanging prefixes
and suffixes. On “synonym” they listed synonyms of the vocabulary word, and on “antonyms,”
they listed antonyms of the vocabulary word. This was a playful and meaningful way to help
students learn new words and explore various meanings as well as assessing their understanding.
To enhance students’ understanding of the texts, we used some customs in these books to
create reading comprehension strategies such as a story taco. A story taco has several layers with
different colors, and each color has its own different function, such as topic, characters, plot, and
setting. An example of a story Taco is listed in Figure 2. Students were asked to use supportive
hand strategy (Opitz, Rubin, & Erekson, 2011). Students individually traced their hands on
construction paper, wrote five major ideas from each book on the five fingers, and the title of the
book on the palm. An example of the Supported Hand is shown in Figure 3. To further enhance
the students’ comprehension skills, students were asked to respond to five “W questions,” plus
“how” such as, who is the main character? What is the story about? Where and when did the
story take place? Why do you think the author chose to begin the story in that way? How did the
main character develop problem solving skills?
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Figure 2. A Story Taco. Tacos represent one type of Mexican food. Tacos normally have three
layers (vegetable, cheese, and meat) and we used the idea to teach students about the structure of
the story: topic, characters, plots, and setting.
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W Questions
Who was the main character of the book?
What happened to Jimmy’s family?
Where was the Internment camp?
When did the story take place?
Why did Jimmy need to find fish for his brother?
Figure 3. A Supported Hand. An example of a supported hand is shown by using Fish for
Jimmy: Inspired by One Family’s Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp
(Yamasaki, 2013).
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To integrate writing into the multicultural unit, using a wordless picture book helped
students see how a storyline flows and how imagination can be used so that they can use their
own writing skills by creating what is occurring within the story. The wordless book, Mirror
(Baker, 2012), was selected to practice writing. Students were asked what they saw from two of
the texts and what images they had for two families that live in two different countries. Then
students wrote two stories about two families and students were asked to share their writing
about what they saw in these books.
These eight texts were written in either present or past tense, so we started to introduce
grammar skills by selecting present-tense verbs and the past tenses of regular and irregular verbs.
Explaining what present and past tenses are and providing some examples from these texts was
crucial for students to understand the basic English grammar. Especially, some other language
learners, such as Chinese, do not use present and past verbs in their own language. We selected
sentences from each text, created sentence strips with present-and past-tense verbs, and asked
students to read through the sentence strips. To assess students’ knowledge of present and past
sentence structures, the VKVS foldable activity (Zike, 2009) was implemented. We selected
some verb tenses from the texts in two categories, and used different-colored lines drawn across
the center to show correct verbs or phrases. Some sentences were selected from these texts, such
as “He walks to the factory before the sun comes up” (Winter, 2014, p. 6) and “Our neighbors on
the ship bought bananas and gave my family one” (Fleischman, 2013, p. 20). When students
were able to select present and past tense words and sentences for their own foldable, they
showed improvement in their writing skills and sentence structures. An example of the VKVS
foldable activity is shown in Figure 5.
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Figure 4. VKVS foldable. The VKVS foldable is an organized instruction to teach past and
present tenses. The foldable has two strips, one word with past tense and another word with
present tense.
At the same time, students were taught how to use three different writing strategies:
Fishies in the Sea, sentence builder, and poetry writing. Fishies in the Sea is in conjunction with
the past and present tense verb section of student papers. Providing the amount of index cards
needed, some index cards had one verb in present tense, and other index cards had the past tense
of the verb. Randomly shuffled and passed out, one index card was given to each student. The
students had to “swim” around the room (silently like fish) and find their match. Once they
found their match, the pair (or group of three) sat down. Students could be seated when they
found the correct match. Once everyone was correctly matched, they worked together with their
partners to create sentences using the words. After finishing the Fishies in the Sea writing
strategy, we wrote sentences and posted them all over the room on poster boards, leaving a blank
for the word and having the students rotate around. They needed to read all of the sentences to
determine whether the sentences were done correctly. The sentences were read when students
finished to see if they made sense. Corrections were made when necessary. These two strategies
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not only enhanced students’ writing skills, they also taught more accurately the use of past and
present tenses.
Poetry writing was another good strategy to enhance student writing and comprehension
skills because students can learn poetic language through wordplay (Larrick, 1991). For
example, acrostic poems could possibly foster students’ reading comprehension: students can
write a book title, a key word, a phrase, a character’s name, and an event to complete the poem.
Or, they could be asked to create a poem with one word, like “Passover” from The Longest
Night: A Passover Story (Snyder, 2013). We created the following poem for teaching purposes:
Prepared food
Ahead
Sweater for cold winter
Somewhere never seen before
Overcome uncertain events
Vital experience
Errors happened, but
Relate to each other
Character-Study Journals
To help students understand a character’s experiences, feelings, emotions, and situations,
as well as evaluating the role of the character in the text, students were asked to select one of the
characters they would like to “report” about. Some questions could assist students as they
reported on the character from their own perspectives, such as What kind of person is the
character? How does the author help you to understand this character’s personality and feelings?
Can you find words the author uses to show what the character is like? Are any of the characters
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in the story like people you know or like characters you have read about in other stories? Does
the character change during the story? How is she/he different?
It is important to guide students to grasp how story characters might feel, think, and
respond. We used the stories “Malala: A Brave Girl from Pakistan” and “Iqbal: A brave boy
from Pakistan” (Winter, 2014). Students responded to questions such as
• Why did Malala need to fight for education and freedom of speech?
• What were her feelings when she was shot?
• What were Iqbal's feelings while he was a labor slave?
• What did he feel when he was being freed?
• How did Iqbal help children as a labor slave?
Through contemplating the characters’ situations, students become more personally involved
with the characters’ problems and experiences or respond to significant events that occur during
a character’s life. Students could reach a deeper level of involvement and engagement and
become able to think beyond the text (Vieira & Grantham, 2011).
After students finished the primary character journal writing, we asked students to
review each other’s character journals by using checklists based on four criteria (I have circled
the words that might be misspelled; I have checked that all sentences begin with capital letters; I
have checked that all sentences end with punctuation marks; I have checked that all proper nouns
begin with a capital letter) (Tompkins, 2014). The process of peer review provided us more
accurate information about each student’s writing level, increased cooperative learning and
communication skills that focused on students’ strengths and styles, and enhanced positive social
relationships.
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To help readers connect all texts with a comprehensive understanding, we had students
make connections among story structure, plot, character, and consequences. For instance,
students could explain the sequence of the story Pemba Sherpa (Cossi, 2009) by answering
questions such as, Why did Pemba need to collect firewood for school? Where did Pemba fall?
How did Yang Ki rescue her brother? What tools did Yang Ki use to rescue her brother? How
did the story end? We asked students to use Venn diagram graphic organizers (McKenna, 2002)
to compare two characters from the books. Having students compare and contrast two characters’
situations, adventures, and problem-solving skills could assist students as they compared Tai
Shan’s life experience (Red Kite, Blue Kite, Jiang, 2013) and Pancho’s journey across the border
(Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale, Tonatiuh, 2013), or Malala Yousafzai’s
educational experiences (Malala: A Brave Girl from Pakistan) and Yang Ki’s learning journey
(Pemba Sherpa, Cossi, 2009). An example of a Venn diagram is listed in Figure 5.
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Figure 5. Venn Diagram. Students were asked to compare and contrast two different girls in
different texts. The Venn diagram helped students to identity that the two girls had same and
different characters regardless of their cultures and languages.
Interview a Character was an interesting strategy that students liked to play with the
character they selected. We had students work in pairs. One partner asked the other one
questions and the one being interviewed must answer as the character. Dressing like the
character is also recommended. Students dressed as the character based on the text they read.
The students enjoyed doing that because the project helped them to be part of the story. In the
meantime, students could perceive more of what the character has been through.
Literature Discussions and Presentations
To aid students in understanding a literary heritage that comes from diverse backgrounds,
we asked students to work in small groups to discuss the events, the culture, and the country in
• Brave/ Strong
Girls
• Determined
to pursue
their goals
and dreams
• Freedom to
make choices
Malala
• Pakistan
• Girl
Education
• The right to
speak out –
Every girl
needs to
receive
education
Yang Ki
• Nepal
• Porter
• Go beyond
traditional
boundaries
that say
girls cannot
be porters
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the texts. We provided questions for students to discuss or that would lead students to search for
more information about the culture or the country in the text, such as What are some features
(language, location, architecture, food, religion, or educational systems, etc.) of the country?
What are some characteristics of the culture? What are similarities and differences between your
culture and theirs? What would you like to see if you have an opportunity to visit the country?
Why?
After students found out more information about the culture and customs in the text, they
were required to do some specific jobs within their small group activity. Each group needed to
have one person in charge of each category related to the texts. Responsibilities included food
(students researched and found recipes for class), clothing (students researched and recreated
native clothing), history (timeline of people and events), geography (maps, pictures, or a
topography shadowbox), language (teach the class words or phrases of a different language).
This activity helped students see how these cultures work, be aware of differences in cultures
other than their own, and become more familiar with the rich heritage of stories in each text.
Students shall gain opportunities to enrich and refine their understanding of the cultures and also
to review their own interpretations in light of the interpretations of others.
To develop students’ awareness about their surroundings and to explore larger social and
cultural issues beyond the texts, students were asked to compare characters’ situations to their
own lives or their communities: How do new immigrants cope with language and culture
barriers? How does your community support children in need (such as hungry children)? What
support could we provide for children who need education? This activity not only supported the
idea that reading and discussing books helped students to be aware of a variety of culturally
relevant social issues, but also made positive multicultural connections in our classroom and
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society. To make connections between texts and community service, we had the class brainstorm
a specific charity or organization, and students came up with some meaningful fundraising
activities.
To stimulate thinking beyond the texts, students were asked to create a way to share their
childhood memories about literacy learning (e.g., signs, animals, people, books, etc.) or
important people who had an impact on their early literacy development (who taught them how
to read and write). The goal for a literacy theater was to allow students to think and to reflect on
their own literacy journey, to encourage meaningful and critical talk. When students were able to
compare with other counterparts’ learning experiences in these texts such as in Pakistan, they
could not only reflect on their literacy development journey, but also appreciated their literary
experiences.
Concluding Remarks
When high-quality books are selected and aligned with well-structured lessons and events
in the classrooms, students should directly relate to characters and situations that reflect their
own cultures and the cultures of others (Heflin & Barksdale-Ladd, 2001). Creating a culturally
responsive classroom as a multicultural and multi-social community is necessary in today’s
multicultural classrooms. That should be part of the literacy curriculum at the elementary school
level. Furthermore, culturally responsive teachers shall have a great impact on students’ literacy
acquisition and development of cultural awareness and understanding.
The focus of the current project has led students to embrace an array of powerful
diversities in this world and has also provided a great support so diverse learners can build
necessary literacy skill, knowledge, and understanding of other people. Students experienced
cultural differences through reading multicultural children's literature, which helped them reflect
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on their own cultural diversity, and exposed them to cultural differences. Students have also
improved comprehension and reading skills as well as increased vocabulary usage.
This project made students connect reading and writing in different content areas.
Teaching reading and writing should go hand in hand in a culturally responsive classroom
(Graves, Graves, Juel, Grave, & Dewitz, 2011; Opitz et al., 2011; Reutzel & Cooter, 2012;
Vacca et al., 2015). Effective reading and writing strategies offer more opportunities for students
to engage in literacy-learning activities and expand their reading horizons. When culturally
responsive teachers integrate reading and writing into their daily teaching routine, students not
only comprehend the meanings of different genres and experiment with different languages and
cultures, but are also inspired to appreciate different life experiences and to accept differences.
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Huang & Rohmer CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM
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Author Bio: Dr. Suhua Huang received a Ph.D. in Reading Education from the University of
Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at Midwestern State
University, where she teaches children’s and adolescent literature, reading diagnosis, and ESL
methods for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Her research interests are reading
motivation, reading instruction, and reading assessment. Dr. Huang has published two books and
several articles have been published in respected journals such as Reading Research Quarterly,
Reading Psychology, and Language Teaching Research. Dr. Huang is also engaged in a research
study about college students’ reading interests and habits. The article was not only published
in Reading Psychology, but it was also highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on May
1, 2013 in the article, “Students May be Reading Plenty, but not for class.” The topic has
received much attention in higher education circles. Dr. Huang also received several internal and
external grants to support her research agenda and teaching practices.
Author Bio: Karissa Rohmer graduated from high school in Bowie, Texas, and from
Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. She and Dr. Suhua Huang conducted
several literacy research studies together while she was working on her master degree in Reading
Education at Midwestern State University. She currently lives with her husband, dogs, and
horses in rural Clay County, Texas. She also teaches 2nd Grade at Midway School.
Why